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“Pyonyang is ready to have dialogue for family reunion'

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  • Published KST
  • Updated KST

Hyun Hak-bong

A ranking North Korean diplomat said the North is ready to have dialogue with the South for the reunion of the families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, should the latter cancel the annual military drill with the United States.

Hyun Hak-bong, North Korean ambassador to Britain, said the two sides may be able to discuss the exact date for the envisioned family reunion. His statement contained in a video interview Thursday drew attention as it came after the North had kept silence over the issue.

"The two sides can engage in dialogue to discuss the practical and exact date. And we are now working on that,” he said in the interview with the Sky News, a 24 hour-news channel in Britain.

Seoul earlier proposed the reunion take place at Mount Geumgang, a scenic resort in the North on Feb. 17-22. Toward that end, it also called on the North to hold Red Cross talks Wednesday at the border village of Panmunjeom. The North has yet to come up with formal response to the proposal.

Seoul and Washington are set to conduct the joint military exercises from late February through April.

"It is high time for South Korea to cancel or to stop the military exercises," Hyun said.

The North has been showing allergic response to the military exercises, describing them a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it. But Seoul and Washington remain adamant that they will press ahead with the exercises, calling them defensive in nature.

South Korea's unification minister reiterated call on North Korea to hold family reunions at an early date possible as the first step toward improving inter-Korean relations.

"The North is strongly urged to respond to reunions without any conditions if it is sincerely committed to addressing the issue of separated families," minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a speech Friday ahead of the Lunar New Year's Day.

Over the purge of former North Korean No. 2 man Jang Song-Thaek, he confirmed for the first time as a North Korean official that Jang was shot to death.